Beeyond Your Average Ranch

We take pride in being able to operate a dynamic farming operation, including 7 vineyards totaling 135 acres, and an additional 508 acres of Walnut orchards. All grown organically to serve our own business and, more importantly, the local ecology. Now we have gone a step further by introducing a new facet to our farming operation; hosting honey bee boxes.

  Recently Adelaida partnered with Jeremy Rose, owner, and operator of the California Bee Company. With his help, we are now home to a total of 18 bee boxes on our Hilltop Ranch and HMR Ranch. With every box hosting its own hive ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 bees, depending on the season. All require some amount of routine monitoring and upkeep, which is mostly done at night when the bees are most dormant. Then during the day, the bees are able to make use of area wildflowers to sustain their hives.

  These bee boxes provide two benefits. The most obvious being the honey. Fully operational, each box has the potential to produce 25 pounds of honey per year. Enough that we hope our tasting room will soon be able to offer jars of another great product we produce ourselves; like our walnuts and, of course, estate wines. But while being able to serve our own honey is great, it’s not the most important benefit of hosting the boxes.

  In truth, we have established these boxes as part of our continuous efforts to serve as good stewards of the land within and surrounding our ranches. Bees have been no stranger to threats in the world, having been diminished by a variety of menaces including, but not limited to, parasites and pesticides. So similar to how our organic farming practices help our vineyards and orchards to vitalize the ecosystems they exist in, these bee boxes will help empower another incredibly vital part of those same ecosystems; providing safe and monitored homes for these hives to breed and develop healthy bee populations that can survive the common pressures they constantly face.

  Wine, walnuts, and honey, all produced to benefit both the land and our customers. It’s a pretty sweet operation when you think about it. 🍯🐝

Want to learn more? Visit Jeremy Rose's Instagram California Bee Company